I just had this conversation 2 days ago with a Sparty alum. I thought it was completely classless for a D1 head coach to retaliate to Mike's comment by making fun of his stature. The Sparty alum thought it was no worse than Mike's original comment.

Call me crazy, but when you're a college kid and go 4-0 against a team during your tenure, I think you have the right to poke fun at them. As a coach, you should be a little more mature than that.

Mark Dantonio would have won if he said something to the tune of "I didn't hear those comments" and just refuse to answer any questions on it, or add "if he did say them, I'm surprised. He seems classier than that."

He doesn't look classy to me. He looks like an angry, up-tight version of Billy Bob Thornton.

I think you may have misinterpreted what I wrote. The point of my post was to highlight what a respectable coach would say; instead, he's an idiot who will be outcoached and outworked this season by Michigan.

I know what you mean. I might have already told this story on this blog before, but my first ever Michigan vs MSU game was in 2002. As an out of stater, I didn't quite have any understanding of how obnoxious fans can be. I was late to the game (Sorry, I was a freshman at the time, not knowing that I would ultimately develop an unhealthy obsession for Michigan athletics.) Anyway, I was late to the game, and as I got close to the stadium, these Michigan State fans (drunk and older) were like "It's already 3-0! We're going to destroy you today, you might as well go home to the library WOOOOOOO!" (Not verbatim, but very similar to that.)

Needless to say, the final score of that game was 49-3 Michigan. I, to this day, don't really have as much animosity for MSU as your standard Michigander, but after the last two years, I understand 100% why everyone (over)uses the Little Brother quote.

Dantonio is classless jerk. No head coach should ever respond in public to anything a college athlete says about a rivalry. Do you think Lloyd Carr would have made any comment if the situation was reveresed? I doubt he would have even acknowledged it. Dantonio made his bed with his "Should we have a moment of silence?" comment when he heard about M's loss to Appalachian State. In my opinion, it's OK to stoke the fires of the M-MSU rivalry because as Rick Leach said "Their day is coming".

Dantonio shouldn't have responded to him, but Hart shouldn't have said it. He was 21 at the time, and should have known better. Don't forget that that wasn't an isolated incident, and some of the teams he was talking trash about he went winless against in his career.

He didn't call anyone else "little brother," but he was talking smack to OSU after he lost to OSU (and went 0-4), and didn't he get into an argument with Harbaugh? I don't see how anyone couldn't respect Hart as a player, but he needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut and be more like Long or Henne.

"They don't care what happens to their school," Hart said of his teammates. "Their school can lose every week, but if Michigan doesn't win, there's going to be 52 guys in that locker room talking about Michigan. They want to see us lose, and they like to see us down."

So true, hence the "Spartan fans are obsessed with Michigan" meme. It's one thing to talk about your rivals and follow their teams, it's a whole 'nother level to revel in their losses more than your own wins/losses.

There are two ex-Spartans (plus Swenson and White) on the Colt's roster.

Hart's point is that even the players from ND, USC, Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma look up to Michigan. It's not just fans of pathetic schools.

"This is a program in transition, this is a program that's going back to hard-nosed, big-boy football," Brandon said. "We're in the process of putting the pieces in place to afford us to do that consistently and effectively.

I realize you don't seriously believe that the Spartans could fill an entire NFL roster. But I thought that MH's point about the sentiments of players from quality schools shouldn't be lost.

"This is a program in transition, this is a program that's going back to hard-nosed, big-boy football," Brandon said. "We're in the process of putting the pieces in place to afford us to do that consistently and effectively.

imo s*** talking is food for the opponent. to me, msu knows they are Michigan's little brothers because they are, not because anyone has to tell them. i think MSU did nothing but use those comments as motivation.

Drew Henson, on if he could go back to 2000 and decide again between a senior year at Michigan and George Steinbrenner paying him to play baseball because he was Michigan's starting quarterback...

"Would I have liked to (have had) a fourth year to be in school and played and see what we could have done? Looking back, right now, I'd probably say yeah."

Because this decision still bothers me as a Michigan fan (Henson was my class so I was there for the whole saga), but I still can't fault him -- bird in hand and whatnot -- for taking the offer in front of him.

In the quote, Henson notes that he thinks differently at 30 than he did at 20. Which, duh, but I remember being right there at the same age and I still think exactly how I did 10 years ago about that.